2979/Checking In: Mamoru

Checking In: Mamoru
Date of Scene:	15 March 2026
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Checking up on Mamoru, Rashmi brings hotpot and a friendly ear to the poor CLAMP noodle. Because sometimes it's all she can do, but it helps anyway.
Cast of Characters:	Rashmi Terios, Mamoru Chiba

---

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Sunday.

A *day off.*

Between finals and foes, actual days off are a rare and precious resource, and not to be wasted. Which is why it's mid-afternoon, when Mamoru gets a series of texts on his phone.

Rashmi TXT: Hey Mamo-san!
Rashmi TXT: After Bliss-chan I've been worried about a *lot* of folks, you included. Wanted to see if I can help.
Rashmi TXT: Can I come over? Name the place, I'll pick up for both of us.
Rashmi TXT: Also I was worried after last night, did something happen?

Trust Rashmi not to miss the little things...

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru TXT: sure! and uh sorry i meant to text
Mamoru TXT: i got wet cement up my nose and in my hair
Mamoru TXT: i dont really want to talk about it tho
Mamoru TXT: also sorry bout the cookie
Mamoru TXT: and rip i dont have any food prefs right now, surprise me?

The high school senior's on the roof of the building, letting the breeze mess up his hair, closing his eyes as he faces the afternoon sun full on. He's wearing a pink Babymetal t-shirt under his leather jacket, black jeans, slip-on sneakers. He looks tired, but who doesn't?

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi TXT: Oh no it's fine I'd only *just told* Aoi-chan she had first dibs. And then after, Amy-chan was all 'oh yay Rashmi brought snacks!' and it was just... bah. It's okay though. I'll surprise her with something nice, and trust me I *fully* do not want to discuss last night in detail.
Rashmi TXT: No prefs, got it. One bucket of whole buttered octopus on the way.
Rashmi TXT: Not really of course, I'll surprise you.

Probably the most startling thing about Rashmi's entrance is, she is *carrying* a big takeout bag in hand, when she lands on the roof. "...I actually had to *ask* Nicomachea if I could fly up here," she says sheepishly as she approaches. "According to him I've been getting... too casual? About relying on him. But he let me splatter cupcakes on my shirt a few times before he'd *tell* me. Anyway, hotpot?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'd say the audacity but I don't actually know enough about how your powers work," Mamoru says with a laugh. "And, I try not to eat anything that could outsmart me, so thank you for not bringing nopetopus, haha--"

His manner's a studied kind of easy, which isn't easy at all, but can play it pretty well on TV. He offers to take the hotpot and carry it, but also opens the door for them to go inside. "Bliss-chan," he says amiably, "was almost better than being erased. For the record. But-- but Bliss-chan... have you spoken to Usagi yet?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"First one I talked to," Rashmi answers easily, handing over the bag and following Mamoru into the apartment. "I saw it hit her *hard,* and was really worried. Still am... but now I know *why* at least."

Once unpacked, it turns out to be not *true* hotpot, but two largish 'single-serving' waxed paper bowls from some restaurant nearby, filled with broth, protein, vegetables... One has everything she's observed Mamoru to like, as well as much he'd be neutral on. And a small side-cup of chopped chilis, in case she guessed his heat preferences too low. Her own bowl is a decently spicy curry broth, two kinds of fish cake, *three* kinds of tofu, mushrooms, and udon noodles as well as a couple vegetables.

"Honestly... For me the worst part was that we got *got.* In the *school.* It's supposed to be safe and... Now I have an entire hour-long ritual I have to do to calm my brain down *enough* to sleep."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"We've got a Beryl leaning on us who's more obsessed with Emi than Beryl was with me, and he supercharged two of his generals to attack us through a vector that's less strongly protected when Emi's unable to fight," Mamoru says, hands briefly falling to his sides as his shoulders drop a little. "Once we take him out, you won't need to do the ritual anymore, because that threat'll be dealt with. I gave up, I was getting alarm fatigue, and I can't stay on campus, it was driving me crazy."

Looking down at the assortment of food uncomprehendingly for a moment, he says, "So you know the problem Usagi and I can't really talk about."

He wave his hands in the air around his head for a second as if clearing the air, then goes to get them a couple of drinks. "Ginger beer?" he asks from the fridge. "Or soda, or coffee, or pineapple juice?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Yeah," Rashmi sighs. "I mean heck... I know that once Hinoiri-chan gets a handle on the spell she needs, I won't even have to wait *that* long, but... I don't like being afraid to go to sleep. Like those old horror movies Dad talked about, once... Nope, nope, no thank you."

And then Mamoru mentions Elephant-kun, and Rashmi nods, sliding onto a seat with her bowl at the counter. "I do... And I get it, for both of you. And I mean... the only solution *I* can see is Usa-chan just *retiring,* at some point. *Nobody* takes a job for life, and we're basically first-responders *and* soldiers without the training that helps *either* of them. So yeah... if she wanted to just put the tiara down, I'd actually support it. Ginger beer, please."

Waiting to pick up her chopsticks until Mamoru gets settled, the redhead shrugs. "...But I don't think she will. So whatever she does, it's gonna have to be something she hasn't even thought of yet. But that's her," she says, looking up and raising an eyebrow. "Right now? I'm worried about *you.*"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Two ginger beers get carried to the table; they're twist-offs, glass bottles. One's placed in front of Rashmi, and then Mamoru sits down with his, and he says, "Itadakimasu."

Then he surveys the food, trying to figure out how to talk and eat at the same time, and unable to come up with a solution, he holds his chopsticks resting over the bowl and waits for it to cool down. "That's the thing, though. Everything is magic to me. Even her touching me, unless I have psychic shields up, is participating in magic. I am constantly getting a lot more sensory input than most people, and without it, and without knowing why or what I was missing-- that's the only reason I was doing that. I would never, otherwise. Knowing what I was missing was worse, in the hospital, during Sunset of Sora. I am magic, Rashmi-chan. I've never known any different. So, I'm not okay, because Usagi's not okay with this thing I-- I don't know how I'd live without. I don't have to fight, but I have to feel."

His voice is quieter. "I would support her giving it up, too. But I don't think she could make herself." He stirs his soup. "How Usagi is doing is the real problem, and everything else is just more nightmares."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Itadakimasu," Rashmi echoes... And begins to work while Mamoru talks, nodding her understanding as Mamoru lays out his particular... handicap, more in the golf sense than the accessibility sense. "Yeah," she says, after managing to demolish a third of her toppings while barely *looking* to have eaten much. "I get it from your side, too. I don't think she *can* give it up, but I don't see how you'd be *able* to. And you'd probably want to, if she did. But what she wants most...? It's for magic to never have happened, and that's just impossible."

Looking down at her soup, she heaves the sigh of someone unable to tackle the biggest problem in front of her. "But what can we even *do,* except just be there for her, and try our best to keep her smile *honest?*"

Emphasis necessary, really, because Bliss-chan was *that much of a pain.*

"I don't know... And if you think of something, Mamo-san, *please* tell me."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I just-- don't know how I can avoid talking about the future with her, because I already said what I wanted to be was a therapist for kids like us, mahoujin with PTSD, you know? Which involves mahoujin with PTSD. So I can't talk about going to school for child psych or whatever," the prince says, and then finally picks himself up to sit properly, with one leg tucked under him in a diningroom chair and the other foot hooked behind the bar between the front legs of the chair. And he eats.

And once he starts, he realizes how hungry he is, and starts inhaling it.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"And that would be *amazing,*" Rashmi says quietly. "I can... already think of *so many people* that would help. Me included, so I guess I'm wildly biased." This, said with the casual honesty of someone who isn't *concerned* about their bias, because it is on its face alone a wonderful idea.

"So I know it's not the same, but as your friend Mamo-san, I will support this *however* I can. Even if it means making a running schedule of study-teams, because there's a lot of people I want to see get everything they're after."

And some that she wants to see get *nothing,* but that's a sentiment that doesn't need stating. It'd kill the mood even deader.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I appreciate that," Mamoru says, taking a break eating to wash it down with some ginger beer. He sets it down on the table and looks in its direction, but Rashmi can tell by now that he's certainly perceiving something that isn't his bottle. (Or he's otherwise dissociating, but--) He looks back at Rashmi and half-smiles, looking apologetic. "It's just-- it's just that I ruined talking about the future by tying it to magic. The future. With my wife. Who I get to marry *again* in a few years. And she'd probably feel sick talking about that too because you know there'll be fighting associated with it."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi shakes her head at the apologetic smile, already denying its need before he even explains himself. "Mamo-san... I don't think you *ruined* it. I think things aren't great right now, because *she's* not in a great place. But like... I'm gonna be honest here; there's a few of us who've paired off, right? But I don't think *any* of us don't look at you and her, whenever you're together, and *don't* see a love that's *literally* written in the stars. Chrono and I're happy, and we're gonna *be* happy, but it's a *quiet* happy. It's not the fireworks and arias and *alternate future daughters* that happen with you two."

With that, she takes a swig of her drink, setting it down with a *clonk*. "All of which is to say... Until we see the way forward? I think we can have faith that there *is* one. Because I have faith in *you* two."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Eating a lot slower now, mostly in the 'sip the soup part' of the process of ingestion, Mamoru unfolds and refolds himself whilst holding the bowl: it's in-place parkour. "You're right and I'll try to internalize that, but I'm in my feelings and Kazuo said I'm not allowed to experiment with my own neurotransmitters, so it's gonna take a little while for me to cheer up."

He sets the bowl down and looks at it, and then he takes off his glasses and scrubs his hands down his face. "And it's hard to really be happy when I have to be careful of my touch with her. Like what is she going to do when it's too warm for long sleeves? Should I go back to wearing gloves like I did when I was a little kid? But she could still... she could tell me that she chooses me. But she's so sad, Rashmi-chan, she's so sad!"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"She *is,*" Rashmi answers, "and she's my friend and I *hate it,* and d'you know what makes me *so mad* I want to throw something? *Magic never gave her anything but complications,*" Rashmi says, stabbing viciously at a chunk of fried tofu. "She told me, everything that was good in her life, all the people she loves and all the friends she has? She'd've probably had that *without* magic. And complications aside, I can't argue with that! You, Ami-san, your boys, her girls, if there was never any magic at all, you'd probably be a bunch of barely-delinquent Cool Guys, and she'd've still collected friends like a magnet in iron! And I'm *so mad* at a world where she's the *only one* who didn't get a reason to be happy magic was real, Mamo-san."

Pausing, Rashmi blinks a bit, aware she just Suddenly Monologued while trying to check up on her *friend,* and blushes, reapplying herself to her noodles. "Anyway... nobody can be sad forever. This's an eclipse, and they end."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah, she says that, but no, when I was erased from ever having existed, only one of my boys wasn't doing or pondering doing a felony, and I would have been... I would have been so much worse off, I would have been so much lonelier without Riventon and Takashi-kun to be friends with me, to let me look after him. I would have been in the orphanage until this year," says Mamoru, exhaling his soul, looking so tired.

"If we met again, I would have been more messed up now than I am, which is saying something, because I was a Dark General in middle school. Hell, with what the car looked like, I shouldn't have survived the accident-- so was it my own magic that saved me? I woke up in the hospital already able to feel other people's feelings when they touched me, able to see ghosts, able to heal myself and know where I am--"

Crossing his arms and slouching, rucking up his pink shirt in the back a little bit, Mamoru looks frustrated; he shifts again in the chair, sitting with his knees bent between him and the table, as small as he can possibly make himself look. "But she believes she'd have me if magic never existed, and I can't argue with her over how amazingly unlikely that is, because it's a belief. Nevermind Serenity never would have met me in the first place if there weren't any magic. But then like, that's the only thing I could argue, and I'm not enough to make up for the world, nobody is. So there's no point in arguing it!"

Here, Mamoru unfolds and laughs outright. "And here, this is an example of why we need a mahou therapist. I need to not unload all this on you when all you asked was how I was doing."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"No," Rashmi says, lifting a finger, "I *said* I was coming here to check up on you. Which is *different,* and I *knew* what I was asking, Mamo-san. Because I can't be a therapist *and* a civic leader with eyes on the Diet... But I *can* get started as early as possible, helping everyone I can lift themselves up," she says around a gentle chuckle. "And that's what I'm doing; you're my friend, you're stuck in a miserable situation, and I can't *problem-solve* it away, so... I can at least give you a blanket and sit by you until the sun comes out."

Tipping up her bowl to catch the last of the soup, she leans over the counter, giving Mamoru the Big Serious Eyes. "It's not much," she says, extending her bottle, mouth forward to clink. "But it's what I've got, and it's yours because you matter to so, so many people. And *you* deserve some help yourself."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Fair," smiles Mamoru, when Rashmi initially corrects him-- and then when she says about the blanket until the sun comes up, he gets an affectionate look on his face, head tilted. He still has a little left to eat, but it's his own ginger beer he picks up again instead, to clink with Rashmi's. "And thanks. I usually try not to get my problems on my friends, but you were witness to a literal cry for help, so... thanks. For answering it."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"And what kind of friend would I be," Rashmi says gently, "if I *didn't* answer it."

And she leaves it at that, letting Mamoru finish his meal in companionable silence, and answering whatever less-weighty chatting he might come up with, and in general just Showing Up For Her Friend. Because sometimes, it's all you can do, but even a *little* warmth is welcome on a cold day.